Before the end of World War II, the 1926-born Zurich sailor Emil Selhofer left Switzerland and joined the French Foreign Legion. This took him to far-eastern Indochina. In 1947, he deserted and joined the Vietnamese resistance fighters (Viet Minh) in their struggle against the French colonizers. Emil Selhofer fought in the "Détachement Tell," a Vietnamese combat unit of foreign soldiers, where he became a colonel and deputy group leader. Some of the defectors had joined the Legion for political reasons to fight against fascism and sympathized with communism. However, Emil Selhofer was an adventurer who only committed to the fight against capitalism and colonialism through his work in the propaganda office of the Vietnamese army. When China became communist in 1949 and military influence over Vietnamese politics grew, the situation changed further.